By Dianne Selden, Staff Writer 10:18 PM Sunday, March 6, 2011

YELLOW SPRINGS — It was quite a sticky situation at the Flying Mouse Farm, 100 E. Fairfield Pike in Yellow Springs Sunday when the Tecumseh Land Trust invited community members to Michele Burns and John DeWine’s farm.

The 20-acre organic farm grows more than 100 edible products, including maple syrup, and supplies food to a couple of area restaurants.

“There is no way people can get enough exposure to local foods and farming,” TLT Executive Director Krista Magaw said, adding that having assistant director Burns on the board allows the TLT to educate the community about responsible farming practices.

Visitors arrived to ask questions and tour the farm, which seemed to be caught on the cusp of spring but still mired in winter, which TLT board member Richard Zopf said is ideal weather for maple syrup. The syrup usually flows best between February and March, “when temperatures go back and forth between freezing and unfreezing,” he said, adding that last year’s syrup was a victim of warm weather.

About 70 gallons of syrup were produced during the season, compared to the more than 100 gallons of syrup produced so far this year.

Forty to 50 gallons of sap, about two large garbage cans full, must be processed to create one gallon of syrup. The sap is processed in a sugar shack, where sap is boiled down to syrup. The resulting smoke billows picturesque over the farm.

“It’s really interesting all the different things people say (when trying to define the scent of the smoke),” Zopf said. “But what they’re smelling is maple syrup.”

Syrup began interesting DeWine in his childhood.

“When I was younger, I found some (maple processing) supplies up in the attic,” he said, adding that his grandfather, Richard DeWine, built the sugar shack about four years ago. Richard, DeWine said, also unknowingly gave the farm its name through his stories about a gallivanting, superhero-like flying mouse. DeWine swears it can still be seen.